Class (klȧs), n. [F. classe, fr. L. classis class, collection, fleet; akin to Gr. klh^sis a calling, kalei^n to call, E. claim, haul.]

1. A group of individuals ranked together as possessing common characteristics; as, the different classes of society; the educated class; the lower classes.

2. A number of students in a school or college, of the same standing, or pursuing the same studies.

3. A comprehensive division of animate or inanimate objects, grouped together on account of their common characteristics, in any classification in natural science, and subdivided into orders, families, tribes, genera, etc.

4. A set; a kind or description, species or variety.

She had lost one class energies. Macaulay.

5. (Methodist Church) One of the sections into which a church or congregation is divided, and which is under the supervision of a class leader.

Class of a curve (Math.), the kind of a curve as expressed by the number of tangents that can be drawn from any point to the curve. A circle is of the second class. -- Class meeting (Methodist Church), a meeting of a class under the charge of a class leader, for counsel and relegious instruction.

Class , v. i. To grouped or classed.

The genus or famiky under which it classes.Tatham. Tatham.

Class (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Classed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Classing.] [Cf. F. classer. See Class, n.]

1. To arrange in classes; to classify or refer to some class; as, to class words or passages.

☞ In scientific arrangement, to classify is used instead of to class. Dana.

2. To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913